By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.



I used to think quite highly of Mr. Ayikoi Otoo, the former Attorney-General and Justice Minister under the Kufuor administration. But in recent weeks, I have been having second thoughts (See "Oye Lithur Supported Gay Marriage - Ayikoi Otoo" Ghanaweb.com 2/6/13).



First of all, it is rather disingenuous for Mr. Otoo to claim that Nana Oye Lithur supports gay marriages merely because during her recent parliamentary vetting, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection aptly refused to answer a hypothetically personal question that had nothing, whatsoever, to do with her functional portfolio.



In other words, Nana Oye Lithur was asked a question that was professionally illiterate, to put it charitably, and politically unsound; and she was nimble enough (thank goodness!) to have promptly parried off such dastardly attempt to implicate her in a cultural practice of which she is widely known not to either personally endorse or subscribe to.



And if Mr. Otoo cares to know, I was the person who coined the term "Gayrriage," as a shorthand for gay marriage, which now appears in the Urban (American) Dictionary of neologisms and has come into a quite popular use. I coined the term in a bid to calming down the raw nerves of people like the former Attorney-General. You see, for me, democracy means free self-expression in whatever forms one deems appropriate and is comfortable with. Let Divine Providence do the judgmental aspect of whatever choices in life that mature and consenting adults decide to pursue in the name of love and friendship, without causing warm to any bystanders.



You see, unless one is morally fragile or in serious doubt about one's own sexuality, one cannot so facilely label homosexuality or LGBT as a "canker" to be fought by aerial spraying of lethal chemicals of the sort I used to witness on cocoa farms while growing up in God's own country; and also while schooling in the Volta Basin of the oncho-infested Okwawu plateau. Particularly, when available cutting-edge scientific research clearly indicates that homosexuality is a natural tendency among a remarkable percentage of the human species, many of whose Intelligence Quotient is far and away superior to that of Mr. Ayikoi Otoo.



And if he doubts the foregoing observation, by all means, let Mr. Otoo google the "world's great minds/thinkers who are/were gay" and get a shock of his life. In essence, he would discover to his own utter ignorance and ambarrassment that, indeed, close to fifty-percent (or a moiety) of the major contributors to global civilization and culture, including Christian missionaries, philosophers, scientists and thinkers, sported a sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.



You see, the hatred of gays is fundamentally no different from interethnic animosity of the kind that runs so riotous and rampant in Ghanaian society. And the sooner people like the funnily mustachioed Mr. Otoo come to this realization, the better purpose it would serve all Ghanaian citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, personality, political suasion or creed.



And, by the way, would Mr. Otoo also blame homosexuals in his electoral district, or constituency, for having caused his parliamentary defeat in last year's general election? Come on, grow up, young man!



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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Department of English

Nassau Community College of SUNY

Garden City, New York

Feb. 21, 2013

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